I just got a pretty rude awakening when I read that just because an oven, or other appliance is self-cleaning doesn’t mean it is the best thing to rely upon. To be blunt the article I was reading had a lot of fear mongering involved, which I would normally laugh off, but appliances can be mighty expensive. Therefore, I have filtered out some of the unnecessary scary stuff and will give you the useful stuff. I learned.

First off, apparently self-cleaning ovens are infamous for breaking during  the self-cleaning cycle. Seems there is a good window of opportunity for an owner to make use of this cycle, and that is sandwiched between two bad times. If you use the cycle too frequently, something called a glowbar will get used up. However, if you go to long between cleanings there will be so much buildup from cooking that the machine will not be able to handle the cleanup. All of this information has led me to go directly back to the instruction manual that came with my oven to see if I can make heads or tails of this. As it is though, it sounds as if I am already using it in a way that lowers the risk level of breaking. More on this later I assure you.